Five international consortia of architecture and landscape firms have been shortlisted in a competition to design the future research centre of the European Spallation Source (ESS)- a Partnership of 17 European Nations committed to the goal of collectively building and operating the world’s leading facility for research using neutrons by the second quarter of the 21st Century. The 21st century, large-scale science centre will focus on sustainability, creating an attractive working environment and integrating well into its surroundings. It will be built in southern Sweden and is planned to open in 2019.

Continue after the break to view the complete shortlist.

ESS Shortlist:

Benthem Crouwel, West8, Arup, Mandaworks

Bjarke Ingels Group, HOK International Limited, Topotek1/man made land

A jury will evaluate the proposals on the basis of several criteria: architectural design qualities, flexibility, economic and functional feasibility, safety and sustainability. At the end of October, the winning design will be announced.

The European Spallation Source – the next generation facility for materials research and life science

The European Spallation Source (ESS) will be a multi-disciplinary research laboratory based on the world’s most powerful neutron source. ESS can be likened to a large microscope, where neutrons are used instead of light to study materials – ranging from polymers and pharmaceuticals to membranes and molecules – to gain knowledge about their structure and function. ESS will be around 30 times better than existing facilities, opening up new possibilities for researchers in for example health, environment, climate, energy, transport sciences and cultural heritage.

ESS is an intergovernmental research infrastructure project, and it will be built in Lund in southern Scandinavia. Currently 17 European countries are Partners in the ESS project, and will take part in the construction, financing and operation of the ESS. Sweden and Denmark will co-host the ESS and cover 50 percent of the 1,4 B€ investment costs and 20 percent of the operating costs together with the Nordic and Baltic states.

The European Spallation Source ESS AB is a public limited company, today owned by the Swedish and the Danish states. ESS AB is currently working on finalizing the ESS technical design, planning the future research at ESS, preparing for construction, and planning the future international ESS organization. This is done in collaboration with a large number of research institutes, universities and laboratories around the world. Construction is expected to start in 2013, the ﬁrst neutrons to be produced in 2019 and the facility to be fully operational around 2025.

ESS is expected to support a user community of at least 5000 European researchers and will have great strategic importance for the development of the European Research Area. Near by there will be complementary laboratories, such as the synchrotron MAX IV in Lund and XFEL and PETRAIII in Hamburg.